I have a question about Gail’s strength. Is her super strength a constant / defaul and she has to be conscious about be ginger with things/people, or does she have typical strength by defaul and have to consciously use her powers?

elastigale:

Her strength is constantly cranked up to ridiculous levels, which is why she has to be so ginger and careful with touching/holding things all the time.  Everything from a paper clip to a car has the same weight to her (almost nothing) and almost everything feels fragile as though it was made of tissue paper.  She spends her whole life feeling like a bull in a china shop, and despite her best efforts there are always times where she’s startled/distracted and breaks things unintentionally.  This is also one of the reasons she prefers flying/floating to walking whenever possible (aside from it being a lot more fun) because she’s less likely to break things.

As a kid, she had even less control of her powers and accidentally hurt people sometimes.  Her parents, before giving her over to her aunt and uncle, had multiple hospital visits. (More about Gail’s upbringing here.)  This is where a lot of her anxiety about being touchy with Helen comes from, she’s so scared of hurting her.